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0.08 is an illegal amount of alcohol (number of “rounds”) in the blood for driving, or positive proof you are "lethal’ on the road, in a motor vehicle that is NOT intended to kill. Why NOT limit the number of rounds in a firearm that IS intended to kill?

Why not just make the cops do their jobs?Why not fire eric holder?Zero FELONS have been convicted of violating the “Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act”!This has been going on for how many yrs????Since 1994.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brady_law

THe Brady Bill/Law requires that convicted felons who fail the NISC background check be arrested and sent back to prison for a mandatory ten year sentence. The feds do not enforce the Brady Bill. What good is a "gun control law that is not enforced?

@dtroutma: we can lower the amount of alcohol allowed in the blood to zero and it still will not stop someone from getting behind the wheel. We can make the cans and bottles smaller and it still will not stop. Again… treating they symptom and not the cause… the liberal way. Besides, your analogy has nothing to do with the argument on guns. There’s this little thing called the 2nd Amendment that has to be addressed, and in the proper manner set forth by the Constitution, which provides the basis of our laws.

Germany has very tough gun laws, but there is a rumor that there are as many as 10 million illegal guns out here. But if I were to go out and try to get one I’d run a huge risk of entrapment, blackmail, price gouging, arrest and prison.

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I guess in America it’s much easier because of gun shows. If I were to sell a illegal gun in America I would hang around those shows, leaning on the trunk of my car and look “shifty” (like in the movies) to attract people who need to buy without being asked any questions. Or I would simply put out an advert in the classified ads. It’s normal, it’s legal (the sale itself, AFAIK), nobody cares.

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In Germany people DO care. We have no gun shows that I know of, but if we had they would be swarming with police, open and covert. And if someone were to put out an ad the newspaper wouldn’t print it and instead call the police. It is a different culture, not just the laws. I live in a high-crime area, but I still walk the streets at night without fear of actual DEATH. If there were a holdup it would probably be with a knife. There are also basically no crack-heads or meth users around (pot, heroine and cocaine are Germany’s drugs of choice) so you don’t have that much crime to finance the drugs. Again, a cultural difference that can’t be easily resolved.

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Prostitution is legal over here. That means there are no pimps. That reduces the “dark side” of the red light districts. I live in Frankfurt and have been there quite often. It’s very friendly, the police patrols the area to make sure everything is above board. Hamburg is even better (Reeperbahn), even families go there for amusement. It’s like Las Vegas, not like New York where I would not dare to enter anything remotely associated with “red light”.

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Back to the point: lax gun laws are bad, but a society that is fixated on violence, crime and “sin” is worse and can’t be controlled by laws. You guys need to mellow out. You need to remove crime by giving people better options and by removing the pressure on them to show off (extreme capitalism, richer is somehow “better”). You need to educate your children about morals and ethics and the golden rule. You need to spend time with them, not just put them in front of the TV. More love, less computer games. This is how one improves a society, any society. We Germans are far from perfect, heaven knows, but at least we try. But if President Obama or anybody else tries he is mocked, like with the so called “beer summit”. You shouldn’t mock those who try to make you a better nation, you should support them!

Sorry to disappoint the liberals, but police generally do not protect. They arrive after it is too late. The only protection most people have is a gun. If there is no gun, a hammer, a baseball bat, or some other weapon. Contrary to how the news media portrays things, guns are for killing when you are a hunter, and they are for protection if you are not a hunter. I am much saver having a gun for protection, rather than the false safety people think they have because you can call 911 and in ten to fifteen minutes, the police will arrive. That ten to fifteen minutes are an eternity when you are in danger with no weapon to protect yourself. Guns protect. Liberal criminals want to commit their crimes without fear of facing a weapon.

All I can really say – get the criminals to put down the weapons first and I will gladly give mine up. I have used mine to protect my family and others. If I did not have one the guy would NOT have stopped..period. So I saved a lady that absolutely hates guns but was oddly enough very happy I had mine. So I guess a liberal is only against guns when their life is not in danger. Much like the rant from Germany, take a long look at the years before all this started to happen. Guns were around and no one did all of this. So is it society media glorifying the violence? Lack of morals and spending time with kids to know their issues and help teach nonviolent solutions? Lets take a look into the past and see why it did not happen and see what changed today. So lax gun laws and being hard on owners of guns isn’t the solution. Look at Chicago over 500 kids are killed each year, media does not pick it up because its “normal” and its one or two at a time and they have tough gun control. Education, love, family bring back moral values might be the solution.

About Nick Anderson

Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle is an avowed independent who covers politics and contemporary cultural issues in a way that connects with readers. His loose, idiosyncratic style carries with it an unconventional message that has broad appeal. "I approach my work with a healthy skepticism for the ideological extremists littering our political landscape," explains Anderson.